


Sweet Sixteen

by notanotherscreenname



Series: A Casteless With a Big Mouth. [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 03:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5769892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notanotherscreenname/pseuds/notanotherscreenname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natia Brosca has spent most of her young life trying to avoid the Carta but on her sixteenth birthday she meets Jarvia and her life changes forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Sixteen

    Natia pumped her legs as hard as she could, keeping just abreast of the guards pursuing her. She rounded a corner and ducked into an alcove occupied by Earnan the beggar who was currently asleep and snoring loudly. He had set up a little tent that she ducked behind rather than in. As the sound of foot steps grew closer she sucked in a few gulps of air to hold off the burning in her lungs long enough to hold her breath while they searched the tent. After a minute they gave up, assuming she had gotten ahead of them when she went around the corner. They exited the alcove at a run toward the direction of the Diamond quarter.  
  
    She slipped from behind the tent and found the old beggar still asleep, most likely drunk. She checked his pulse just to assure to herself that he was alive and then dropped a couple of coppers into the cup near his head. She knew he’d just spend it on ale but he had helped her out in the past and with that crooked leg of his, crushed in a cave in while he was scavenging, he couldn’t support himself any longer. After another scan for guards she took off toward Dust Town to meet back up with Leske. They’d been pick pocketing in the commons when she was spotted, they split up and agreed to meet back in Dust Town.  
  
    She took the steps down two at a time easing into the relative safety of Dust Town. Safe as long as she kept her head down and stayed out of the way of the Carta. Safer than the Commons anyway, for every minute a duster spent there they ran the risk of being caught by a guard and hauled off for the slightest infraction real or imagined. She had heard about the things the Carta did, smuggling, skull cracking, protection rackets, none of it seemed too bad to her but Rica had made her promise she’d stay out of their way for as long as possible. Every duster wound up in the Carta’s pocket eventually. She spotted Leske and skipped into a run to catch up with him but ran into a woman exiting Alimar’s Emporium.  
  
    “Well, well, What do we have here?” Her voice was soft but with the hint of a threat when she said, “name’s Jarvia. Want to make some money?”  
  
    Natia pulled herself up to her full height, she was the tallest dwarf in Dust Town before she’d made it to her fifteenth nameday. Rumors spread that Kalah had somehow made it to the surface and bedded a human but that wasn’t true. Natia squared herself up to look more intimidating but Jarvia just laughed. It took more than a few inches of height to get to her.  
  
    Jarvia tapped a knuckle on Natia’s arm and repeated, “want to make some money?”  
  
    Natia opened her mouth, poised to snark at Jarvia, but Leske had finally noticed them and jogged up before Natia could bury herself by insulting the Carta lieutenant. “Hey, Duster, what’s shaping?”  
  
    Jarvia turned to Leske and said, “your friend here seems to be a mute. How about you answer the question then. Do you think she wants to make some money?”  
  
    Leske quirked is mouth up at the corners and said, “I would never turn down an offer of money from a pretty woman.” He added a waggle of his eyebrows and said, “or an offer of a pretty woman for that matter.”  
  
    Natia finally found her voice in the form of a derisive snort, “no but they never seem to have a problem turning you down.” She turned to Jarvia and tried to sound bored when she asked,” So, what do I have to do to earn this money?”  
  
    “All I need you to do is deliver a message.”  
  
    It sounded simple enough but Natia wasn’t stupid and growing up in Dust Town taught her not to trust anyone in the Carta. “What kind of message?”  
  
    Jarvia smirked and grasped Natia’s chin hard, pressing red crescents into her skin with her fingernails. “Smart girl. Smart girls either die fast or rise to the top. I’m on top so you should do your best to act dumb.” She released Natia’s face with a shove and handed off a small knife. “Lord Bemots second oldest has a lover, he’s a fighter in The Provings. He’ll be in The Commons after the fights today. Bemot owes Beraht fifty sovereigns so you’re going to deliver this “message” to her lover to let Bemot know it’s time to pay up.  
  
    Natia understood but didn’t want to. “You want me to give a guy a knife?”  
  
    Jarvia again shot a hand out to Natia, this time grabbing a handful of her inky dark hair and yanking it so hard that their faces were inches apart. “I want you to slit his throat and leave the knife on the body. Dead women don’t pay their debts but dead lovers are a damn good incentive.” She released Natia’s hair gently and slid her hand down to her face rubbing a thumb across Natia’s pronounced cheek bone. “Little girls in Dust Town get two options you know. You’re not pretty enough for a noble to want to stick his prink in you so you get option number two.”  
  
    Natia licked her lips ready to refuse and live through the beating she’d definitely receive for refusing the Carta but Leske again stopped her. “Aw Jarvia, come one. It’s Nat’s nameday, sweet sixteen, we were gonna buy some moss wine and sneak into the Provings.”  
  
    Jarvia slapped him hard across the face and sneered at Natia. “I’ve been watching you, you know. Berahts got his eyes on that sister of yours. Says she’s got a sweet little ass. She’s going to catch a pretty noble boy I’m sure. That is if she lives past tonight.”  
  
    Natia snatched the knife from Jarvia’s hand. Her face had hardened in the span of a second, “What does he look like?”  
  
    Jarvia purred, “that’s a good girl. Good girls know their place. I’ll be there to point him out and make sure that you finish the job. Meet me in the Commons in an hour. Oh and don’t even think about running home to protect precious Rica. Her blood will be decorating the walls if you so much as look at that hovel of yours before you finish the job.“

 

\-----

 

  
    An hour later Leske and Natia were back in the Commons. The guards were stretched thin thanks to the crowd pouring out of the Provings after the fights, so they didn’t have to worry about being spotted again. Jarvia materialized from the shadows behind a stall when they drew near her. She silently pointed a finger singling out a broad chested blond with a girl on each arm. “End him out here in the open and I’ll throw in a bottle of topside whiskey for your nameday.”  
  
    Natia gripped the knife, knuckles going white under the pressure. She never had any illusions that she’d survive Dust Town without violence but this guy was just a bystander. He wasn’t even the one that owed the money. She squeezed her eyes shut, breathing in the mix of acrid lava, body odor and topside spices from the closest stall. Rica loved the smell of those spices. For her last nameday Natia had swiped a little sachet full of cinnamon and cloves. Natia conjured the image of Rica’s smile as she breathed in the heady scents. Then she imagined a knife pulled across her sisters throat and thick blood spraying out onto the walls.  
  
    She opened her eyes but the image lingered for a moment imposing itself over the bustle of the crowd around her. Tears threatened to spill out but she swiped the back of her hand across her eyes. She looked back at Leske and Jarvia for a second. Leske was nervous but he gave her a reassuring smile as if to say, “it was going to happen eventually, might as well get it over with.” Jarvia just crossed her arms and nodded her head. Natia hesitated for another second prompting Jarvia to put a boot in her ass sending her stumbling forward.  
  
    Natia straightened then, a snarl forming on her face but dying when she saw her opening. The girls had left the fighters side for a moment to fondle fabrics in a nearby stall and he was distracted by a shield on the table in front of him. Natia picked up her pace, not really running but eating up ground with her long strides. When she was within reach of him she grabbed a handful of his hair jerking his head back and exposing his neck. She jabbed the knife into the soft skin under his chin releasing a spray of blood to rival the one the imaginary Rica had sprayed across her mind. She shoved the knife harder across his throat opening it up in a ghastly imitation of jewelry then drew back and slammed the knife into his wind pipe with enough force to create a sickening popping sound, then left it there to deliver Berahts message to Bemot.  
  
    She stood ramrod straight staring at him, mouth open but silent in an apology she couldn’t give. She assumed that she’d be carted off by guards at any moment so she tried her best to remember Rica’s smile as she smelled the sachet. To feel the love from her sisters eyes, the affection in her voice when she spoke to Natia. A crush of sound breached her thoughts as a set of bulky arms wrapped around her middle and she was upended onto Leske's shoulders. The commotion of the crowd around her finally reached her mind sending thoughts of Rica scurrying off like rats in the tunnels. She allowed Leske to sweep her away before the guards caught on to what was happening.

 

\-----

  
  
    “By the Ancestors asses you’re sodding heavy.” He had carried her all the way home like that, blood slicked and staring wide eyed at nothing like she’d been kicked in the head by a bronto. He shouldered his way through her front door with Jarvia on his heels cooing about what a good job Natia had done. When he sat Natia down in a chair he chucked her under the chin and said, “hey, wake up. We still have to celebrate you’re nameday and you earned a bottle of topside whiskey to do it with.”  
  
    “Oh my word,” Rica gasped as she came into the room. “What happened where is she hurt?”  
  
    Jarvia smirked and said, “relax, none of that is her blood precious. Today she became a Carta skull cracker.”  
  
    Jarvia dropped a purse full of coins on the table, more than Natia and Leske had made the whole day pick pocketing. She said, “drop by Tapsters, tell Cora I owe you that bottle of whiskey.” She stopped in the doorway and looked at Rica. “Beraht’ll be by tomorrow to see you. Make sure you doll yourself up nice.”  
  
    Rica filled a bucket with water and handed wash cloths to Natia and Leske. She gave Natia a little bundle of purple tissue, a nameday gift, and said, “here use this.”  
  
    Natia grabbed her wrist nervously and said, “are you okay? Did they hurt you?”  
  
    “Who?”

  
    “The Carta, Beraht.”  
  
    “I’ve never seen Beraht. What do you mean?”  
  
    Leske raised his brow once he understood. They’d been played and now all three of them were in the Cartas pocket. He said, “Jarvia told us Beraht was here and that if we didn’t do as she said he would have killed you.”  
  
    “Sodding thugs, all of them” Rica nudged his shoulder and said, “Leske get cleaned up and go get that whiskey.”  
  
    Natia had unwrapped her gift by then and found a little bar of Orlesian soap. It smelled of lavender and rosemary and was shaped like a gem. She brought it up to her nose and inhaled. A calm settled over her as she imagined the open sky and flowers. One day she thought, I’ll take us all topside and leave this shithole behind.  
  
    When Leske returned with the whiskey they all got Stone blind drunk and passed out in a heap like a litter of nugs. 

**Author's Note:**

> This will be the first in a series of shorts about my Warden Natia Brosca. Yes I realize that's the default name and it's not terribly creative but thanks to a glitch on my first play with her it took away the custom name I gave her and went back to the default. I didn't feel like recreating her so I kept the name expecting to not really enjoy the dwarf commoner origin. I fell in love with the Dragon Age dwarves however and now I have a difficult time playing any other origin. The series is going to be about the events that happen between the scenes in the game. I'm not out to retell the story of Origins I'm out to tell the story of Natia.


End file.
